


A Sticky Situation

by LailaLiquorice



Category: The Worst Witch (TV 2017)
Genre: Episode Tag, Gen, Pre-Canon, S2 E2 The Friendship Trap
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-18
Updated: 2018-01-18
Packaged: 2019-03-06 14:41:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,618
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13413432
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LailaLiquorice/pseuds/LailaLiquorice
Summary: It isn't just quarrelling students who are subjected to Ada's friendship traps. When tensions come to head between Hecate and Dimity, desperate times call for desperate measures.





	A Sticky Situation

**Author's Note:**

> So this was prompted by someone in the fandom suggesting that Miss Drill had been in a friendship trap before since she knew so much about them, and someone else wondering what would have happened if Dimity and Hecate were trapped in one together. I couldn't resist the idea, and so I give you this!  
> It'll likely be 3 chapters total but we'll see :)
> 
> Quick note: 'Geraldine' is Miss Gullet; I checked TWW Wiki for any info on her first name and there wasn't anything definite given, but I looked at the image of the book she wrote and it looked like her name was written as Geraldine Gullet. So that's what I went with.

Even for witches it was common knowledge that light travelled faster than sound. There was a surprising amount of overlap between Spell Sciences and the non-magical version of the subject; principles of chemistry and played a significant role in all levels of potion making, and knowledge of energy transfer was essential to the advanced spell caster. While there were a few grey areas of course – for instance, the accuracy of Newton’s laws of physics depended on whether magic was counted as a force or not – but for the most part they were few and far between.

But despite this knowledge, Ada still swore that she could tell when Hecate and Dimity were transferring into her office because their arguments always reached her ears first.

It was impossible to pay attention to anything they were shouting, each raising her voice above the other with every new retort in an effort to catch Ada’s attention. Hecate’s voice was as icy as ever despite the increasing intensity, each word picked carefully and wielded like a sword, whereas the sheer volume of Dimity’s bellowing roar ensured that Ada couldn’t hear herself think let alone whatever she was saying. After letting them continue for a minute or so she’d had enough; within a split second she was on her feet, clicking her fingers to magically silence them both as she shouted “STOP!”

The quiet in her office was almost more deafening than the argument.  Hecate’s eyes were wide and her eyebrows raised as she attempted to continue, though with Ada’s spell holding her tongue she couldn’t manage more than a strangled squeak. Dimity didn’t even try, clearly stunned into silence.

Once Hecate stopped trying to resist Ada let the spell fall with a sigh, stepping around her desk to lean on the front of it as she looked the two women sternly in the eye. “Ladies,” she began, letting disappointment seep into her tone. “This really can’t continue. Regardless of what you think of each other, you’re showing a bad example to the girls. They look to us for guidance and you should know this is not the sort of behaviour we allow at Cackle’s.”

“Sorry Miss Cackle,” Dimity mumbled, sounding more like a first year in that moment than a teacher. Hecate merely dropped her gaze and lowered her head a little, though Ada knew her deputy enough to see the apology in the gesture.

Ada shook her head. “Don’t be sorry. Be better,” she urged them. Placing a hand behind each witch’s shoulder she turned them to face each other, adding “Besides, it’s each other you should really apologise to.”

For a moment they were both quiet, staring each other down until Ada pointedly cleared her throat. Dimity caved first, muttering a hasty “Sorry Miss Hardbroom.”

“Likewise,” Hecate said, her eyes fixed on Dimity.

“Hecate,” Ada said warningly.

A muscle in Hecate’s jaw twitched, but after closing her eyes briefly she corrected herself with “Sorry… Miss Drill.”

Ada sighed again, letting her hands fall from their shoulders. “That will have to do for the time being. Now off you both go, I don’t want to think what might happen if Davina and Geraldine are left alone on dinner duty too long.”

As Hecate transferred herself out of the office and Dimity left via the door, Ada returned to her chair with the slightest hint of a smile on her face. Neither witch had noticed the handprint glowing on her back, a last resort that Ada had a feeling would come in handy sooner rather than later.

 

* * *

 

Hecate could feel the beginnings of a headache pulsing at her temples as another excited shout from outside pierced the quiet in the potions lab. “Concentrate,” she growled yet again as her first years turned towards the window, all of them entranced by the witches flying past at near breakneck speed. They were probably going to break their necks if someone didn’t give them some basic safety advice. She regretted thinking that very quickly, raising her eyebrows as she realised she was sounding like Miss Gullet.

Another scream interrupted her thought process, but her frustration was immediately replaced with alarm when she realised it was coming from inside her classroom. She whirled around on the spot to see her class cowering behind their desks and a ball rocketing towards the window; she only had time to throw out her hands before it smashed through the class and bounced off the protective barrier she’d thrown up around the girls. As the shattered glass finished raining down she let the barrier fall, the girls daring to peer out from under her desk as the ball rolled down the steps to land at her feet.

“Is anybody hurt?” Hecate asked after letting the shocked silence hang for a moment or so, inwardly relieved when everybody shook their head slowly. “Then class dismissed.” With a final contemptuous glance she vanished the offending ball, then twisted her hand to cast a repairing charm that slowly pulled the shards of glass back into the window. Once satisfied with her handiwork, she didn’t wait for the last stragglers to leave the lab before transferring herself out into the courtyard.

As expected, upon rematerialising she was greeted by Dimity Drill and her very nervous looking witchball team looking up at her window. 

“Would one of you care to explain why my first year potions class was interrupted by your ball smashing my window?” she asked sharply, taking pleasure from how they all jumped horribly when she started to speak.

“It was nothing more than a training accident Miss Hardbroom, we’ve got new team members who aren’t quite as practised as the rest of them. Faun and Evangeline haven’t played before, it wasn’t anything more than a missed catch.” Dimity said apologetically.

Hecate raised an eyebrow, sweeping her gaze over the two third years who both quailed under her stony glare. “That ‘missed catch’, as you put it, could have caused great injury to my class,” she returned, giving Faun a particularly hard glare as she added “I doubt everything would be so easily dismissed if your sister had been hurt by your mishap, Faun Fallon.”

Faun’s eyes widened suddenly, clearly realising it had been her younger sister Fleur in the potions lab at the time. “Sorry Miss Hardbroom,” she muttered, dropping her gaze to the ground.

“Now come on Miss Hardbroom, you can’t go punishing the girl for something that was an accident,” Dimity said, taking a couple of steps forward from her team.

“Can’t I?” Hecate asked, walking around Dimity so she could look at the girls again. “Considering they have damaged school property, disrupted a lesson, and nearly caused grievous injury? I’d say that level of recklessness goes beyond the average accident, Miss Drill.”

Dimity bristled visibly. “What you call recklessness just happens to be the very basics of witchball, Miss Hardbroom. Something you’d know if you cared the slightest bit about anything that doesn’t involve being stuck in a stuffy potions lab.”

Hecate blinked in surprise; clearly Dimity had got over the shock and embarrassment of nearly destroying the castle. In her peripheral vision she could see the girls taking slow steps backwards to put some distance between them and the two teachers.

Crossing her hands over her chest, she continued in a tone so icy it seemed to make the air chill. “I take interest in anything that will benefit our girls developing the necessary skills they need to be witches, Miss Drill. That so happens to include potions, and standard broomstick flying. It does not happen to include them flying around and screeching at each other like undignified monkeys!”

“I’ll have you know that our girls benefit very much from being able to do things that they enjoy every once in a while!” Dimity snapped, stalking up to Hecate so that her face was inches from her own.

A voice behind her piped up with “Miss Hardbroom, there’s something-“

“Quiet Rosalind.” Hecate interrupted.

“No, Miss, really, there’s something glowing on your back!” Rosalind pressed on with enough desperation in her voice to make Hecate break eye contact with Dimity to look round at her.

“There’s something on your shoulder too Miss Drill!” Elspeth added, sounding genuinely concerned.

While Rosalind alone wasn’t always someone to take seriously, the worried tone in the usually quiet Elspeth’s voice had her believing their claims. As Hecate reached around to try and feel anything on the back of her dress she heard Dimity turning in circles trying to do the same, but both of them stopped and stared as a glowing golden light travelled down Hecate’s right arm and Dimity’s left.

Anything that Hecate was about to say was lost when something jerked her backwards and she collided roughly with Dimity before they both overbalanced to land heavily on the ground

“Miss Hardbroom! Miss Drill! Are you alright?” Rosalind asked worriedly, Faun and Evangeline watching with frightened expressions from a few paces behind her.

After taking a moment to compose herself, Hecate began “Yes, Elspeth, I’m fine,” but broke off with a grunt when Dimity attempted to stand up and yanked Hecate’s arm violently, pulling her back down.

“What the-“ Dimity said under her breath, prompting a slightly winded Hecate to look at her right arm.

A jolt of panic seized her chest when she saw Dimity’s arm seemingly connected to hers from wrist to elbow, the same golden glow binding them like a spiders web before fading to nothing. One eyebrow raised, she gave her arm an experimental tug and Dimity’s came with it.

“Oh bats,” groaned Dimity. Hecate said nothing, only closed her eyes briefly as her headache got significantly worse.

**Author's Note:**

> Come find me at lailaliquorice.tumblr.com :)


End file.
